223 The Invasion: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Invasion: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 223
STORY NUMBER: 046
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 23 November 1968
WRITER: Derrick Sherwin & Kit Pedler
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
RATINGS: 6.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The Invasion

"Doctor. If you can hear me, listen. You have ten minutes, Doctor. Ten minutes to relinquish your freedom. At the end of that time, your young friend Zoe will pay the consequences of your foolish and totally pointless opposition. Ten minutes, Doctor, ten minutes!"

Jamie tells the Doctor something moved in crate. The Doctor & Jamie hear that Zoe & Isobel are to be moved and follow. Vaughan berates Packer for not finding the Doctor & Jamie. Vaughan tells Packer he will be in control after Invasion, using Professor Watkins' machine to produce emotions and destroy the Invaders. Does P wish to be totally converted? V thinks even if they fail they could escape in the Doctor's Tardis. The Doctor & Jamie see Isobel & Zoe's crate taken inside, and notice the UNIT helicopter nearby. Captain Turner reports the activity to the Brigadier. Packer thinks Doctor is with UNIT. Vaughan makes a loud speaker announcement giving the Doctor 10 minutes to surrender or Zoe will pay the price. Isobel & Zoe are trapped in a room high in the building. Isobel wonders why they are being kept there. They see the Doctor & Jamie out of a window. The Doctor & Jamie climb a ladder to the roof. Isobel & Zoe realise they're being watched by a camera. The Doctor warns the Brigadier that they may need some assistance from the helicopter. Vaughan & Packer see the helicopter approaching and Vaughan orders it shot down. The helicopter lowers a rope ladder, which Jamie climbs down, opening the window in Zoe & Isobel's room allowing them all to escape up the rope ladder. The Brigadier is concerned but Captain Turner reports mission's success. Packer is angry at the UNIT helicopter. Vaughan orders the Cerebration Mentor brought to London: he is bringing the Invasion plans forward for 24 hours time. He calls the Ministry of Defence and asks to speak to Major General Rutlidge. Vaughan tells him to stop UNIT from interfering. On the Hercules The Brigadier says they were lucky to get away with it, while Isobel wishes she had her camera for some photos which Captain Turner says would have provided proof of Vaughan's activities. The Doctor is concerned by who fired missile at them and why there are deep space radio transmitters at Vaughan's compound. Sergeant Walters wonders if it's linked to recent UFO sightings, which the Doctor asks for pictures of. Vaughan tells Professor Watkins, who still believes Vaughan holds his niece, that he has 24 hours to complete the Cerebration Mentor or Isobel will be hurt. The Doctor thinks the UFO pictures are significant. They started about a year ago but the UFOs vanish over South England, roughly the area covered by Vaughan's factories. He asks Jamie if he recognised what's in crate, guessing it was brought in on UFOs and then taken to Vaughan's London headquarters. The Doctor looks at map and finds underground river into Vaughan's London HQ. The Doctor & Jamie canoe in and enter the headquarters. They witness a cylinder being worked on by technicians. There is a pulsing noise and light as the thing inside begins to move, a tall silver figure bursting out of it's container: A Cyberman!

A nice little present at the end there to celebrate Doctor Who's fifth birthday as one of it's favourite monsters returns!

This episode is all about two of the big sets pieces in the story: the helicopter rescue and the reveal of the monsters. We can't see moving pictures of what happened with the helicopter of course and have to rely on the animators' interpretation, but my faith in Douglas Camfield's abilities makes me think it looked rather good. Although there's no Telesnaps for this story there's a large number of publicity photos, some of which are on the DVD, which include several of the helicopter rescue sequence. I can remember seeing some in The Invasion archive feature in the 1982 Doctor Who magazine winter special when I was younger.

Fraser Hines tells a story that when the helicopter scene was filmed the female members of the cast were having trouble with their skirts being blown up and the camera angles inevitably showing their underwear. Not so our Scottish character: he'd had lead weights sewn into his kilt!

But before that there's a major piece of dialogue between Vaughan & Packer:

PACKER: The whole compound's under alert, Mister Vaughn.
VAUGHN: And?
PACKER: Well, er
VAUGHN: You haven't yet found them.
PACKER: Well it's only a matter of time.
VAUGHN: Is it? I doubt it, Packer. This Doctor's far too clever a fish for you to net.
PACKER: Well, if you'd let me take care of them properly in the first place and obeyed the orders of our allies, you might
VAUGHN: Orders? Me, Packer? I told them and I'll tell you. I give orders, not take them.
PACKER: You told them that?
VAUGHN: The invasion's under my control, and when our purpose has been achieved I shall still be in control.
PACKER: You can't fight them.
VAUGHN: Packer. Why do you think I kept that old fool Watkins alive.
PACKER: Well, to work on his machine of course.
VAUGHN: And why did you think I wanted him to do that?
PACKER: Well, you. I don't know.
VAUGHN: Our allies appear to find the Professor's machine somewhat disturbing, so much so in fact that when they saw the prototype they ordered us to destroy it and all similar machines.
PACKER: You mean they're frightened of it?
VAUGHN: The teaching power of the machine didn't worry them, but when I generated some emotion pulses. I'm convinced, Packer, that emotion could be used to destroy them.

Bit of a clue there perhaps as to who Vaughan's allies are? But it's also hanging Chekov's Gun on the wall for later in the serial.

PACKER: That's only a guess.
VAUGHN: A gamble, Packer, a reasonable gamble, and after all we are playing this game for very high stakes, are we not?
PACKER: Well, I think you're taking too big a chance.
VAUGHN: Do you wish to be totally converted? Would you prefer to be one of them? Completely inhuman?
PACKER: Oh, no! But
VAUGHN: That's what'll happen if they take over. We will cease to be human.

More clues there, I think many would have guessed by now! This particular clue ties into the workers with superhuman strength we saw in episode 2.

VAUGHN: So, we must use their force and their might and then discard them.
PACKER: And you're sure that this machine can do it?
VAUGHN: Even if we fail, we could escape. The Doctor. We must secure this spacecraft of his.
PACKER: Oh yeah, I see. Insurance.
VAUGHN: Exactly, Packer.

A few other things that have happened in the story are bought into the big picture:

JAMIE: Doctor? Hey, Doctor, what's the matter?
DOCTOR: Hmm? Jamie, that object on the other side of the moon.
BRIGADIER: Other side of the?
ZOE: Yes. The Tardis went wrong, you see, and we had a sort of, well what, Doctor? A forced landing?
DOCTOR: Mmm? Yeah.
ZOE: And then they fired a missile at us.
BRIGADIER: Who?
ZOE: Well, whoever it was who was on that spaceship on the other side of the moon.
BRIGADIER: Spaceships? On the other side of the Moon?
DOCTOR: And then there was that deep space radio transmitter. I wonder.
TURNER: Look, sir. I know this may sound ridiculous, but could those reported sightings of UFOs have anything to do with this?
JAMIE: UFOs? What's that?
ISOBEL: Unidentified Flying Objects. Flying saucers?
TURNER: But these weren't saucers. All of the sightings were quite clear on that.
DOCTOR: Did anyone, by any chance, photograph any of these objects?
TURNER: Oh yes, we've got several in the files. Shall I get them?
DOCTOR: Oh, if you would be so kind.
TURNER: Right.
DOCTOR: Unidentified Flying Objects.....

Then we return to the thing moving in the crate, which leads us to Vaughan's London HQ:

BRIGADIER: Mean anything to you, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Possibly. How long ago were these objects first sighted?
BRIGADIER: Reports have been drifting in for well over a year now. We sent up fighter planes to investigate, but nothing ever came of it.
TURNER: The odd thing about these sightings is that they usually seem to disappear somewhere over south east England.
ISOBEL: But isn't that where all those factories and laboratories of Vaughn's are?
TURNER: Exactly. That's why I brought it up.
DOCTOR: Jamie, when you were hiding in that crate, you say something moved?
JAMIE: Aye, it was wrapped up in that gauze stuff.
DOCTOR: Did you recognise it at all?
JAMIE: No.
ZOE: What do you think it was, Doctor?
DOCTOR: I don't know. We've got to find out and quickly.
ZOE: How?
DOCTOR: Well, obviously they bring these things, whatever they are, up from the factory in the country to the London premises. That's where we're going to find the answer.
JAMIE: You mean go back to Vaughn's place?
BRIGADIER: I don't think that's wise, Doctor. You're been lucky so far.
JAMIE: Aye, if you think I'm going back inside there
DOCTOR: Jamie, we have to find what is inside these crates. Brigadier, have you got a map? Including the London premises.
BRIGADIER: Yes, yes, I think so. Sergeant Walters!
WALTERS: Sir.
BRIGADIER: May we have map number eight please?
WALTERS: Yes, sir.
TURNER: I'll get it, sir.
BRIGADIER: Thank you. Here we are. Now this, this is the whole area in detail. London offices, warehouse area and surrounding buildings.
DOCTOR: Oh yes, I see.
JAMIE: But Doctor, you can't go back the same way again. They'll be waiting for us this time.
DOCTOR: Oh my word. How very fortunate.
BRIGADIER: Anything I can do to help?
DOCTOR: Brigadier, you don't, by any chance, know where I can find a canoe?

The long awaited monster reveal at the end of the episode we can see as it's on the reprise at the start of episode 5. They've been hinting at it being the Cybermen all along: the device in Vaughan's office is similar to the Cyberplanner, the insinuation with the packaging crates and Vaughan's comment to Packer is that Vaughan's staff, Packer included have already been partially converted to Cybermen like Toberman was in Tomb of the Cybermen while the form moving in the crate is reminiscent of the Cybermen in storage in both Tomb and Wheel in Space. We know the Cybermen have no emotions so using emotions against them is a sensible trick and another hint.

Like episode one, this episode is missing from the BBC archives. You've got to feel sorry for the Cosgrove Hall animators who produced these episodes: Given a famous Doctor Who monster story to work with this is the only occasion they get to animate the monster and the bit they get to do already exists so will inevitably suffer in comparison!

The Cybermen have had a major makeover since the Wheel in Space: The chest unit is a similar design to the Wheel in Space and stays the same way up with the circle at the top, but the top of the unit is now rounded. The rods on the limbs are changed but are broadly similar to the Wheel in Space Cybermen but the connectors between the rods are hemispheres. A new large head has been cast for the Cybermen adding some ribbed padding to the side of the head which completely changes the look. This head will be the basis for all Cybermen from now on appearing in Revenge of the Cybermen with some extra ribbed tubing round the head pipes and used as a starting point for the Earthshock style heads. Interestingly the Revenge chest units are the same as the older Moonbase/Tomb ones and mounted that way up with the circle at the bottom.

Inside the Cyberman seen at the end of this episode is our old friend Pat Gorman. He'd previously been a Freedom Fighter in Dalek Invasion of Earth, a Planetarian, on of the alien delegates, in Mission to the Unknown, a Greek Soldier in The Myth Makers, a Guard in The Massacre, a Worker in The War Machines, a Monk in The Abominable Snowmen and a Guard in The Enemy of the World. He returns as (deep breath, cos he's about to appear very regularly from now on) a Military Policeman in The War Games episode two, a Silurian in Doctor Who and the Silurians episode 2-4/Silurian Scientist in episode 5-7, a Technician in The Ambassadors of Death, a Primord in Inferno , the Auton Leader in Terror of the Autons, Primitive and Voice in Colony in Space episode one & two, Long in Colony in Space episode three, a Primitive in Colony in Space episode four & six and a Colonist in Colony in Space episode five, a Coven Member in The Dæmons, a Guard & Film Cameraman in Day of the Daleks, a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, a UNIT Soldier in The Three Doctors, an Earth Guard/Presidential Guard in Frontier in Space, a Sea Devil in Frontier in Space episode six, a Global Chemicals Guard / 'Nuthatch' Resident in The Green Death, a UNIT Corporal in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Guard in The Monster of Peladon and a soldier in Soldier in Planet of the Spiders. That takes us up to the end of Jon Pertwee's time on the series, he returns in Tom Baker's first story playing the Gate Guard in Robot, a Thal Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, another Cyberman / Dead Crewman in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom, a Soldier/Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Chancellory Guard in The Deadly Assassin, a Medic in The Invisible Enemy, a Kro in The Ribos Operation, the Pilot in The Armageddon Factor, a Thug in City of Death, Gundan in Warriors' Gate, a Foster in The Keeper of Traken, Grogan in Enlightenment, a Soldier in The Caves of Androzani, a Slave Worker in Attack of the Cybermen part one and finally a Cyberman in Attack of the Cybermen part two.

The first entry on IMDB for him has him appearing in Edgar Wallace Mysteries in 1962 as a Police Constable in Time to Remember. From there he goes onto appear in absolutely everything including The Prisoner, as a Hospital Orderly in Hammer Into Anvil, Doomwatch, as a Man in Hear No Evil, Fawlty Towers, as a Hotel Guest in The Builders, Porridge, as a Prison Officer in The Desperate Hours (He walks into the gents as Fletcher is conducting the sampling of his home brew), The Tomorrow People as a Vesh Hunter in Worlds Away and a US Marine in War of the Empires, the Douglas Camfield directed The Nightmare Man as The Killer, The Day of the Triffids as a Blind Man, Blake's 7 as a Scavenger in Deliverance, a Federation Trooper / Rebel in Voice from the Past, the Trantinian planet hopper Captain in Gambit, a Death Squad Trooper in Powerplay, a Federation Trooper in The Harvest of Kairos & Rumours of Death, a Hommik Warrior in Power, a Helot in Traitor and a Federation Trooper in Games & Blake. For The Professionals he was a Golfer in Killer with a Long Arm, a CI5 Agent in Close Quarters & Servant of Two Masters, a Security Man in Weekend in the Country and the Police Superintendent at inquest in Discovered in a Graveyard. He was in The Young Ones as a Policeman in Interesting, the Camfield Beau Geste as a Legionnaire, Russell T Davies' Dark Season as a Heavy in the first episode and Agatha Christie's Poirot a Desk Sergeant in The ABC Murders & a London Man in The Case of the Missing Will.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg of everything he's done!

You wonder if the Cybermen could have been revealed a little sooner in the story and suspect when the story was stretched to eight episodes their reveal was delayed. I can see the reveal as being in the middle of the story still. If we take Peter Bryant's advice and cut the story down to four episodes then I see episode one ending with Jamie in the crate, episode two being similar to the existing episode four and ending with the Cybermen's reveal and episode three climaxing in the famous sequence from the end of the existing episode six. There's lots of padding from episodes 1-3 that could go leaving episode 4 at Vaughan's London HQ. It's been a few years since I watched the Invasion so I'm not sure what could easily be excised from episodes 5 & 6 but I recall there's a lot of waster in episode eight spent mucking around with missiles.